20 indigenous companies selected to travel to Silicon Valley in May 2013 to pitch for investment in USA;

With over 500 attendees and a US delegation of over 40 technology leaders, a highly successful ITLG Global Technology Leaders Summit 2013 in partnership with Cork City Council, Cork Chamber, UCC and CIT concludes by trending on Twitter.

ITLG President John Hartnett, Cork Chamber President John Mullins and Lord Mayor of Cork Cllr. John Buttimer with Tim Lucey, Cork City Manager sign a Memorandum of Understanding between Cork City and ITLG to formalise closer engagement with Silicon Valley.

Cork, 23 January 2013: Cork was the focus of a global business spotlight this week as technology leaders from USA and Russia convened to participate in the Global Technology Leaders Summit 2013. With over 550 in attendance at City Hall, the summit concluded appropriately with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Cork City Council, Cork Chamber and the Irish Technology and Leadership Group (ITLG) to formalise stronger business collaboration for Cork with Silicon Valley. This agreement follows an on-going relationship with key business organisations in the Bay area, and the twinning arrangement between Cork and San Francisco. It is anticipated that the Cork region will benefit from this agreement in terms of inward investment from the West Coast, increased R&D and innovation opportunities, and strengthening commercial activity for Cork. “This summit is a powerful endorsement of the strong links between our Sister City, San Francisco and Cork” said Lord Mayor of Cork Cllr John Buttimer. “The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Irish Technology Leadership Group and local partners, Cork City Council and Cork Chamber will be a key asset in branding Cork a European Technology Cluster and supporting the continued exchange of ideas between technology, investment and business leaders from Silicon Valley and Cork”.

The ITLG Summit was the first major Gathering event of the year for Cork, and showcased the region’s impressive technology and business landscape to the delegation of over 40 US investors and senior level executives. During the 2 day summit, the delegation visited EMC, Dell, McAfee, the Tyndall National Institute and Ireland’s largest incubation centre, the Rubicon and Nimbus Centres at Cork Institute of Technology.

The delegation also met with a shortlist of 48 companies who pitched their innovative technology solutions to the investor panels. Of those companies, the investors selected 20 start- ups in the area of mobile, biotech, cloud, social media and gaming software to visit Silicon Valley to meet other investors in May 2013. The companies selected were: Metabolomic Diagnostics, Ripple Technologies, Full Health Medical, Zeto, iMob Media, Whitepark Engineering, Fortress Payments, Trustev, AnaBio Technologies, Cypro Software, VoucherLink, 3Pro EnergyWatch, iGeotec, Future Ad Labs, MOF Technologies, Fantom, Bizimply and OptiWi-fi.“Cork showcased its world class innovation ecosystem during the ITLG summit. From the high calibre of the start-ups pitching their ideas, to the meetings with Tyndall, CIT and leading global technology companies based here, the positioning of the region to this delegation will further enhance business opportunities and we will continue to strengthen commercial links with our counterparts in Silicon Valley”, said Conor Healy, CEO Cork Chamber.

The UCC spin out company, MitaMed, won the University Challenge Award for its innovative cancer therapy solution. Mitamed beat off stiff competition from other college spin out companies including Wattics (UCD), Nsilico (CIT), Microsense (Queens University Belfast) and SilverCloud Health (Trinity College Dublin).

Frank Ryan, CEO of Enterprise Ireland, offered thought-provoking insights into the current economic position of Ireland, which he described as ‘Europe’s comeback king’. Ryan is confident that Ireland’s tide of success is yet to come and will place Ireland on an economic platform for future growth and prosperity.

Highlights of the summit included leader panels led by Rich Moran, a Silicon Valley investor, Rory McInerney, VP, Intel Corp and Barry O’Sullivan, VP, Cisco and RTE’s new Dragon on the Dragon’s Den series, Sean O’Sullivan. Kinsley Aikins, CEO, Diaspora Matters, was master of ceremonies for the gala dinner at City Hall, and introduced keynote speaker, Craig Barrett, Chairman of ITLG and former Chairman and CEO of Intel.

To follow the Global Technology Leaders Summit, Cork has a significant line up of Gathering events yet to come in 2013. Cork Meet will take place on 10 April 2013 for 2 days and the organisers are already predicting a turnout of over 500 businesses from all over Ireland and the UK to participate in the largest business networking gathering event in Cork.